Starlink

[BigBlue1]

Starlink sounds a bit math challenged... if it goes up 30 to 120 or alternately goes down 30 to 90 then what was the starting price? Sqrt of pi to the e?

I've been with Starlink since it was in beta. Original price was $99/mo. Then in May of 2022 it went up to $110 across the board. Stayed there until March of 2023. At that time they broke people apart by 'near capacity' and 'excess capacity' areas. No idea if that was done by cell or by ground station or what. But my monthly cost went down to $90. Many other folks went up to $120. From March 2023 to now there has been two classes of pricing for the standard residential plan. So now, May 2024, they are re-evaluating their 'near capacity' and 'excess capacity' ratings and moving people (on std residential plan) either from $90 to $120 or from $120 to $90. And I'm sure a lot of people are staying the same as they were.

 

[dmccarty]

... I would also point o North Carolina's early efforts in the late '80s and '90s to bring high speed internet to schools and remote areas as an example of the huge benefits that can happen.
...

I have not seen NC improving rural internet speeds. They spent a fortune on landlines in an eastern NC county, for a small number of users. They could have paid for Starlink for decades for what was spent. My county, and I don't think it is different that other counties, has awful Internet speeds. Before Starlink the fastest DSL we could get was 1.5 mega bits per second. Cell service was better but at a much higher cost. I think we were paying $100-120 for a cell service that quit working right when Starlink arrived. Just in time it was.

There is a small company bring in fiber to some areas but it will be decades before it reaches us. They have been expanding for a decade or so. Ironically, we are not in a really rural area but Internet service is horrible, prior to Starlink, that is. Cell service and price seems to be getting better.

The broadband coverage map in my county is an outright lie. We are lucky in that we have a clear view of the sky so that Starlink works. Most of our neighbors do not have a clear view so Starlink is not an option.

For the pricing discussions, I think we started at $100-110 for Starlink, then it went to $120. They then said they would charge if we went over some amount of data, which we never did, and they removed that cap. Seems like Starlink changes prices and data depending on the local demand and their ability to meet that demand. Our dish pointed north originally then rotated to the east. Supposedly this is helping load balance the network since we are picking up satillites over the ocean.

We did not have any known outage due to the flare. The sky might have been a bit pink/purble but it was hard to tell due to light pollution. Then we had cloud coverage so could not see anything.

 

[LouNY]

I have not seen NC improving rural internet speeds. They spent a fortune on landlines in an eastern NC county, for a small number of users. They could have paid for Starlink for decades for what was spent. My county, and I don't think it is different that other counties, has awful Internet speeds. Before Starlink the fastest DSL we could get was 1.5 mega bits per second. Cell service was better but at a much higher cost. I think we were paying $100-120 for a cell service that quit working right when Starlink arrived. Just in time it was.

There is a small company bring in fiber to some areas but it will be decades before it reaches us. They have been expanding for a decade or so. Ironically, we are not in a really rural area but Internet service is horrible, prior to Starlink, that is. Cell service and price seems to be getting better.

The broadband coverage map in my county is an outright lie. We are lucky in that we have a clear view of the sky so that Starlink works. Most of our neighbors do not have a clear view so Starlink is not an option.

For the pricing discussions, I think we started at $100-110 for Starlink, then it went to $120. They then said they would charge if we went over some amount of data, which we never did, and they removed that cap. Seems like Starlink changes prices and data depending on the local demand and their ability to meet that demand. Our dish pointed north originally then rotated to the east. Supposedly this is helping load balance the network since we are picking up satillites over the ocean.

We did not have any known outage due to the flare. The sky might have been a bit pink/purble but it was hard to tell due to light pollution. Then we had cloud coverage so could not see anything.

Mine has also changed direction of the antenna considerable. It used to face just about due North and every thing worked good. Then it switched to North Easterly and I've had to relocate the atenna and now I have a tiny fringe showing on the very East side which starlink blames for an obstruction drop a couple of times per day for a few seconds. Just enough to drop out my wifes VPN connection.

 

[Locoweed]

Want to guess who lives about 75 feet inside the unavailable area?

 

[gsganzer]

Want to guess who lives about 75 feet inside the unavailable area?

View attachment 869919

Is that were Blue Origin is? That little hex near Alpine?

 

[ponytug]

Want to guess who lives about 75 feet inside the unavailable area?

View attachment 869919

I feel your pain. We were in an excluded region for a long time.

 

[mikester]

For anyone interested in finding out about starlink quality of service - my 3 year old starlink router suddenly died yesterday. The only way to contact support is via their online system. It takes Starlink 24 hours to respond to a support request ticket. Online says I have a gen 1 router and dish. The tech sent me instructions to climb the tower and photograph my gen 3 dish and cables all the way down to my base station. They also provided instructions how to reset the gen 3 router I don't have.

At this point I don't believe paying CDN$160/mo for no service and no support is "better than nothing" internet.

 

[gsganzer]

For anyone interested in finding out about starlink quality of service - my 3 year old starlink router suddenly died yesterday. The only way to contact support is via their online system. It takes Starlink 24 hours to respond to a support request ticket. Online says I have a gen 1 router and dish. The tech sent me instructions to climb the tower and photograph my gen 3 dish and cables all the way down to my base station. They also provided instructions how to reset the gen 3 router I don't have.

At this point I don't believe paying CDN$160/mo for no service and no support is "better than nothing" internet.

I hate to hear this. Hopefully the outlier, rather than the norm. Keep us posted.

 

[Locoweed]

Is that were Blue Origin is? That little hex near Alpine?

Nope, that is north of Van Horn

 

[AnotherBueller]

Here is a speed check site that shows the peak or the maximum times of the test: Bandwithplace Home

Just ran 'Bandwidth' versa 'Speedtest by Ookla Data' (both tests done over ATT cell network), and the results were VERY different. Ping times, 48ms V 32ms; Down- 6.44Mbps V 49.35Mbps; Up 1.08Mbps V 0.90Mbps.
Per Bandwidth at 5Mbps is needed 1 device video streaming and 25 to 50Mbps + for multiple devices. At this time we (wife, son and I) are watching a movie on her computer, reading / replying to this thread (me) and watching movie (son) with no problems. So I wonder how accurate 'Bandwidth (aka Verizon) is, since I'm doing this over my ATT cell phone network.